Social media giant Facebook has announced the launch of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered virtual assistant to its Messenger chat app in the US.
The feature will help users by giving suggestions based on the their conversations.
Immediately available for iPhone and Android users in the US, the AI-based tool was tested by Facebook with a small percentage of users for the past few months.
The new assistant will make suggestions by popping into an open conversation to suggest relevant content and capabilities.
Facebook said: “When we announced M over a year ago, it was a small AI experiment powered by humans that could fulfill almost any request.
“We learned a lot and these interactions have enabled us to build a completely automated version of M that suggests helpful actions in your chat, exposing features people may not have known were available right in Messenger.”
By recognising intent in a conversation, the assistant will suggest actions such as sending stickers, paying or requesting money, and sharing of location, among others.
To experience the new feature, a user simply start chatting with a friend or a group and M may make a suggestion in a conversation based on the core actions supported by it.
Facebook said: “It suggests relevant actions to help manage conversations or help get things done. We are bringing the power of M’s AI technology to support and enhance the Messenger experience and make it more useful, personal and seamless. “
The company has also rolled out a new feature to enable easy access to Messenger features such as Games, Payments, Share Location and Rides.
Facebook plans to launch the suggestions feature to other countries eventually.
It added: “We hope that suggestions from M are just the start of what a proactive, helpful and useful assistant can offer to the 1 billion people who use Messenger each month.”
In December last year, Facebook Messenger was updated with a new native camera offer filters, 3D masks, special effects to allow users to customise the photographs that they take through the app.
